Margaret Thatcher petrified me, and the fact that she's still alive continues to petrify. But she's old and infirm now, proof that only the good die young.

Washington
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:11 am

An old movie called, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" with Kim Darby. These demon like creatures (with skull like prune faces) were released from a fireplace in the basement of Kim Darby's house. They would whisper.."Can you see them, Sally ... hiding in the shadows. They're alive, Sally. They want you to be one of them when the lights go out."

Connecticut
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:48 am

Pictures of Egyptian mummies, real or fake. Had a bit of an Egyptian History obsession and mum let me watch a couple of horror movies when I was a *little* too young, managed to convince myself many times that Tutankhamun was coming to get me in my bed. But surely this is a rational fear?

Wisconsin
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:50 am

Growing up, my dad rented a movie titled Parasite(20 something years ago). One scene had a one of the little creatures busting out of the face of one of the actors. To this day, that scene creeps me out.

Maine
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:52 am

I was scared of two completely ridiculous things. The first one was a particularly malevolent muppet who appeared in one episode of The Muppet Show. The main thing was a series of sketches in The Two Ronnies television programme entitled "The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town". People still mock me for this. I am still petrified of it. I am 28 years old.

Maryland
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:53 am

That damn clown doll from Poltergeist. I was only 6 or 7 when I saw that, and I hated clowns for a long time after that. What's worse is that the light switch cover for the basement light was an obnoxious smiling clown face, you pushed it's nose to turn on the light. Yeah, that's a great feeling going down there after looking at the clownface.

Connecticut
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:24 am

There is a scene in Watcher in the Woods (A disney "horror" movie) where a girl gets trapped underwater. I would not bathe for weeks after that, eventually necessitating my graduating from "bath" to "shower". There are many other scenes in that movie that scared the crap out of me, but that one takes the cake.

North Carolina
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:45 am

the day after, the early 80s movie about nuclear war. i am still having nuke nightmares 25 years later.

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:50 am

IT combined two of my strongest childhood fears into one movie: clowns and spiders. I struggle to come up with something more terrifying than a giant gross sewer spider that disguises itself as a clown. Bad. And. Worse.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:15 am

As a kid I once got whacked in the face by an automatic door, and for years afterwards I hesitated to go through automatic doors for fear they'd close on me.

Maine
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:22 am

When I was little, my parents read me a book about this duckling getting sucked down a drain that was open for maintenance (nice story, right?). Even though the duck was fine in the story, I refused to get in swimming pools or take baths, and even hated walking down the street because of the gutters.

North Carolina
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:28 am

Remember that TV show called "In Search Of"? They did an alien abduction show that scared me for years! I was sure that a slimy green hand was going to reach through my window to abduct me. I moved my bed to the middle of my room and kept it there for years.

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:31 am

The Punky Brewster episode with the haunted indian cave, specifically the scene where Allen's head pops out of the wall. I couldn't close my eyes in the shower to wash my hair so I had to dip my head into the water backwards and let the water run down the back.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:42 am

The ghost and mr. chicken. Seriously. And I was like 10 years old too. I don't know what was wrong with me. Oh - also the first gulf war....I had nightmares about iraqis for years!

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:44 am

there were train tracks across our field behind our house, and i always thought hobos would jump of the train, come to our house, come in, and kill me.

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:45 am

When I was about 7, I was standing in our bathroom (on the second floor, at the back of the house) late at night and looked out the window and in the parking lot of the apartment building behind our back yard, there was a random guy standing there, facing our house. It just creeps me out and made me afraid of the dark. Don't know why it made me afraid of the dark, just did.

Alabama
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:51 am

The movie Fire in the Sky absolutely terrified me. Or pretty much anything involving alien abduction when I was a kid. Unsolved Mysteries would occasionally go down that road as well (shiver).

West Virginia
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:57 am

Chucky. I never even saw any of the movies. It was just the trailers that did it for me. I can't look at a doll with those googly glass eyes the same way since. My older cousins played on this fear one time. In my grandfather's scary old basement, he had a typewriter. One of them typed on a page, "Chucky's going to KILL you!" and then they showed it to me. Eek.

Indiana
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:58 am

The Abominable Snowman from Rudolph. Every year after I watched that, I was convinced that he was in my closet. My younger brother was afraid of KISS (and pretty much everything else).

Maryland
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:02 am

same thing that scares me now...bugs. but only the Bad Bugs...not the Good Bugs. (also, i am not from Hawaii. i'm canadian, but apparently the provinces don't represent, so i picked where i WISHED i was from...which is weird, cuz they have some huge ass bugs there!)

Hawaii
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:05 am

The movie Troll (came out in the late 80's); there's this scene where a little blonde girl is bouncing a ball in the basement. I've been scared of basements (and the space under the stairs) ever since!!

Wisconsin
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:05 am

Jaws. I was 7 when it came out, and I was living in Florida... A place that's fairly beach-centric. But never mind the beach; I was scared of the toilet. I was sure Jaws was going to come through the pipes and chomp me. Same goes for the bathtub, sinks, and pitchers of water.

Washington
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:14 am

My dad hung this old bedspread with a gigantic lion's head on the wall facing my bed in my bedroom. I don't know what he was thinking. Every night for about a year I was terrorized by this 7-foot-tall snarling lion head coming out of the wall.

Utah
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:18 am

dfs

Alabama
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:19 am

The bathroom in my grandparents house had wallpaper that looked like news print. There was one add where the woman scared the crap out of me. She had these crazy eyes that followed you everywhere, and the pattern repeated so she was literally everywhere. I used to run past the door, and make my twin sister accompany me to the bathroom. It bothered me into college when they sold the house

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:21 am

I saw Jaws when I was 7 (Thanks, Dad!) and for years after I was afraid of swimming in lakes, pools, and even the the bath tub in fear of that shark being able to somehow get into that container of water and rip off my legs and eat me.

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:31 am

I convinced myself that there were "dark creatures" that could only live in the dark in my basement. While you could kill them by turning on the light without warning, the surviving creatures would take it out on you the next time you touched the dark. I took to warning the creatures whenever I turned the light on (in their native language, of course). This lasted to an embarrassing age

Washington DC
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:42 am

My grandparents had a bust of JFK at the top of some creepy, steep stairs. It freaks me out to think of it now, 35 years later.

Kansas
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:51 am

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Most specifically, I was afraid to SIT IN CHAIRS, because in school we watched the movie with Michael J. Fox where they irradiate the monkeys, and I spent a fair bit of time being scared to death that someone was going to irradiate me.

Ohio
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:57 am

my brother...he acted like freddie cruger (he has the gloves) and would attack me from the top bunk

Arizona
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:59 am

These movies: Airplane. The scene where the eggs come out of the girl's mouth. 9-to-5. The scene where they're roasting Dabney Coleman over a spit. (Thank you Dolly Parton.) Temple of Doom. Monkey Brains. There were a LOT of other things, but these are probably the most ridiculous.

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:02 am

The shower in the downstairs bathroom in my childhood home had these speckled tiles. In one tile, you could clearly make out a child's face and hand pressed against the inside of the tile, looking out. The face was about 1 inch tall, but that's all it took to keep me out of the shower well into my teens.

New Mexico
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:02 am

Ants. Ants, the movie. Ants, the animal. Ants, the antagonist of one particular Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark teen short story. They crawl into your nose and eat your body out from the inside. Fact.

Texas
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:04 am

In 1980, (aged 7) watching Phantasm on cable scared me. I really hated the idea of going to funerals after that movie.

Michigan
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:23 am

The song Tubular Bells from The Exorcist. I was nine when the movie was released and too young to see it (not that I would have), but I knew what it was about and I knew the song was from it. My brother listened to the radio when we went to sleep, and the station (either KKDJ or KMET in So Cal) played that damn song every night. I was sure that it somehow prepped me for possession.

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:23 am

A 60 minutes episode on crazy chiropractors who said they could cure cancer. The sound of the people's backs cracking scares me to this day - I would never see a chiropractor.

Ohio
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:30 am

The movie Creep, it is a really ridiculous British horror movie about this mutated sewer dwelling man. Sooooo disturbing, though. I still hate going down to the basement at work because it reminds me of the sewers in the movie.

Michigan
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:34 am

Hippies. Seriously. When I was a wee lad, my mom always told me not to go into the forest preserve after dark because of the hippies. I had no idea what hippies were and she never elaborated, but this dire warning put all sorts of nightmarish thoughts in my head. Little did I know that she was referring to people like my sister.

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:38 am

A Fantasy Island episode (late 70's I guess? Whenever that was on.) In one episode this woman walked down a long staircase and at the bottom she stood in front of a mirror which showed her reflection as a skeleton. I was freaked out by mirrors in dark rooms for decades after that. Jaws was also bad. Any body of water made me nervous. Even pools.

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:45 am

The monkey from the trailer for the old movie Monkey Shines. It was one of those toy monkeys that banged on the drums. Terrified of monkeys for years after.

Connecticut
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:53 am

My best friend was Catholic and she'd tell bible stories about wars and retribution and hellfire, ghost story-style. Totally frightening, especially when I'd have to accompany the family to Mass the next morning.

Arizona
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:55 am

Newspaper ads for the movie "Beyond the Door". It was an Exorcist ripoff, and when I eventually saw the movie, it was far from scary. However, the ads were in the paper when I was 6, and the visual of the creepy lady's face just haunted me when I closed my eyes. It's not so scary now. http://www.horrortheatervideo.com/beyondthedoorposter.jpg

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:00 am

I was scared of people. Talking to them, walking up to them, interacting with them. Strangers were dangerous. I remember being too scared to buy a toy at Christmas with some money I got as a present, because I thought the clerk would yell at me and tell me to get out of the store. I got over it. Thankfully. I am from Canada, so I picked Alaska. Its north.

Alaska
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:00 am

The thing at the beginning of the first "Star Trek" movie where the transporter malfunctions and those being transported end up being all mangled/rearranged or something. Scary!

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:09 am

A movie when I was REAL young(like 6)...and since I didn't know what movie it was, I just about jumped out of my skin about three years ago(and I'm 42)..when I heard and then SAW the heartbeat these dissembodied brains complete with spinal cords made. There was a scene where these brains were tearing the wood apart over a door or something to get at "the girl". Afraid of dark for YEARS!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:09 am

When I was like 7 years old I had a book about famous ghosts that I had taken out of my elementary school's library. There was a whole chapter about Abraham Lincoln's ghost. He was such a creepy looking guy to begin with that the idea of his ghost really freaked me out. Also, I started watching Twin Peaks when it was first on tv (I was 10). The 'BOB' character still scares me.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:13 am

Lindsay Lohan

Missouri
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:18 am

Losing my knees. My family had me convinced that if I didn't hold onto my knees when we drove over train tracks that my knees would fall off. For years when we drove we'd all yell out "Hold onto your knees" when crossing train tracks. I only did it once in highschool with friends when I realized that no one else did this.

Alaska
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:26 am

The scariest thing ever was the Gilligan's Island episode where the giant black spider lived in a cave!

Virginia
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:27 am

Salem's Lot - the floating kid vampires and the kid in the coffin.

Texas
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:30 am

Thanks to the Howling series of movies & An American Werewolf in London, I still suffer a debilitating fear of werewolves. I "know" they're not real, but if a twig cracks behind me outside at night I always start running just in case it's a werewolf behind me!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:34 am

Watching Aliens as a kid. I hadn't even seen the original. The scene of the woman stuck to the wall whispering "kill meeeee" before the obligatory chestburster was the source of nightmares for months.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:45 am

Old wood or coal fed furnaces (the kind with the cast iron grates that looked like teeth) in creepy basements. I always thought people burned bodies in there.

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:46 am

In the movie Macabre (1958/9), there is a scene towards the end of the film where the child's casket is opened and the camera zooms in on the doll thing and it appears as though the child/doll is severely decomposed with it's head smashed in -- horrible dreams.

Maryland
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:49 am

Anything involving people peeking in my window.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:49 am

CHUCKIE! I wouldn't go anywhere by myself for months after watching Child's play! I was also always just afraid of the dark. until like... 4 years ago? sometimes it still hits me when i am in a scary dark place alone!

Oregon
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:52 am

Commercials for the movie "Dummy". The dummy sat on a stool with a spotlight on him, talking. (Obviously, without a dummy operator nearby.) This was before the widespread use of remote controls, so when this commercial would come on, I would freak out and cover my ears while some other family member would jump up and turn the channel on the set. Scary! I hate dolls now because of this.

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:54 am

Clowns - Thanks to It BlueJays - Thanks to my grandfather who told me that blue jays are worse than vultures because they don't wait for you to die when they start eating you. Cannibals - Thank you Grandma for letting me watch Silence of the Lambs when I was WAY too young The Poop Monk Monster - My cousins told me that a horible blind zombie lived in the Porto-potties.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:56 am

I don't remember the specifics, but it was a Halloween episode of Punky Brewster where everyone's face was somehow stuck in a rock wall. It was way too creepy for a kids show...

Missouri
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:04 am

1. Saw "Alien" while sitting on my dad's lap. When the creature first attaches itself to the astronaut my father took that opportunity to flail about with his arms and legs noodling all over me. 2. Pyscho shower scene. I showered with the curtain open for months. Cleaning up afterwards was worth the piece of mind. 3. "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" series of books-still scary.

Texas
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:12 am

I was afraid that in the middle of the night my floor would turn into a giant hole that I wouldn't be able to see because my room was so dark. I would climb off the end of my bed and walk around the perimeter of my room to reach the door. Also, I was afraid that I'd go blind in the middle of the night but not be able to tell because it was so dark. PS: My state is spelled incorrectly.

Kentucy
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:14 am

Volcanos. When I was little, I was terrified a volcano would come up under our house. Reading the true story of Paricutín didn't assuage my terror. I begged my parents not to drive past the ancient cinder cone Mt. Capulin in New Mexico, because I was sure it would erupt at any moment. I still refuse to go anywhere with active volcanos.

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:20 am

Brad Childress as the head coach of the MN Vikings!

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:21 am

Two things: Nuclear Holocaust and sleeping on my stomach. The first is self-explanatory but the second came about after reading The Amityville Horror. Apparently the family got killed at 3:15A while sleeping on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs. For years (and kind of to this day), I'd get scared if I found myself trying to fall asleep on my stomach.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:27 am

Clowns. Also, a "Visible Frog" model kit my aunt got me for Christmas. Ever open up a Christmas present that you dropped and ran away from screaming?

Oregon
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:39 am

1969, the giant old elephant with the one bloodshot eye at the PIttsburgh zoo. It was behind bars (old school jail style zoo) and chained to the floor, but that just emphasized that it surely could break through and kill everyone. I have to go. Recalling has scared me again.

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:39 am

Being kidnapped. Every year at school the police chief came in and showed us this video about not talking to strangers. I was TERRIFIED walking home from school, I thought every person I passed wanted to take me. By the time the fear started to ease up, it was time to watch that video again. I'm still secretly a little scared of strangers... especially at night.

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:42 am

Once while visiting a relative, a bunch of neighborhood kids showed me a picture in a book of a somewhat-scary man, and told me that if he touched me, I would die. If I touched him with a shovel, even, I would die. Freaked me right the hell out. I started planning how I would stop breathing and pretend to be dead if the man ever came into my room at night.

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:04 pm

I was about 3 when I walked in on my dad watching Jaws and saw the guy who got his arm bit off. 22 years later, I still won't watch that movie.

West Virginia
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:09 pm

The movie Gremlins. Or any mention of them, actually. I must've been about six when it came on TV and I was able to make it up until they actually show the first Gremlin when I ran out of the room screaming. To this day, I have not seen the rest of the movie (nor do I want to), and I get really freaked out when I see pictures of them.

Maine
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:18 pm

The Golden Book, "The Saggy Baggy Elephant". The elephant had all of this saggy wrinkled skin and There was an aligator who wanted to eat him all up. After that book I was scared of old people who had lots of wrinkles and saggy skin too.

Missouri
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:19 pm

One episode of Fantasy Island. I know I only saw a minute of it so I'm sure it couldn't have been scary, it was Fantasy Island for heavens sake. But, man was I scared forever. Weird.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:22 pm

I grew up on a farm, and had to help out with plucking the butchered chickens. One chicken must have gotten the ax just above the voicebox and with a lungfull of air. As I plucked it, I must have squeezed its' chest and it went "brrrraaaaaa". I think I jumped 10 feet in the air and ran another hundred. Chickens gave me the creeps anyway, and now one was talking to me from the beyond!

Kansas
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:23 pm

Frankenstein never scared me. Marsupials did. Because they're fast.

Missouri
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:26 pm

Sleastaks. Land of the Lost. Nuff said.

Iowa
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:44 pm

There was an outer limits episode where some lady was being chased around her house and terrorized by an Afican Warrior Fetish doll. I've seen it since, and man is it ever corny to me now, but I had nightmares about that damned evil doll for months afetrwards.

South Carolina
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:52 pm

a creepy artistic rendition of the human nervous system from the Life Science Library "The Body". i wish i could google image a scan, it really was ƒ*¢ked up. it was the title page for a chapter called something like "The Unsleeping Body". note: the poltergeist clown is at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas!!!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 12:59 pm

I can no f**in' believe somebody has the same one as me: the Fantasy Island Episode where the woman's reflection is a skeleton. That scared me for YEARS afterwards and I was afraid to look into the mirror for too long. And the movie Halloween.

Idaho
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:01 pm

Jet airplanes. I grew up very close to Miramar Naval Air Station and F-15s (or whatever they were) would fly right over our back yard. I hated the noise and the giant silver things booming right over my swingset.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:01 pm

Ah yes, the "outer limits episode where some lady was being chased around her house and terrorized by an Afican Warrior Fetish doll". If the chain was removed from its neck, it would come alive. That was scaaarrrrry!!!! Also, the trailer for the movie "It's Alive". Never saw the movie, but the trailer was scary enough...

New Hampshire
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:03 pm

I read the Amityville horror when I was way too young. gave me nightmares

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:43 pm

Purple smurfs, GNAP, GNAP!

Hawaii
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:44 pm

Chucky. never saw any of the movies all the way through, could never make it. plus dolls of any kind scared the crap out of me. it didn't help that my brother had one of those "my buddy" dolls that looked just like a normal, nonmutilated chucky. oh and i cried the first time i saw a trailer for the Nightmare Before Christmas and said i never wanted to see it, but now i love it.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:45 pm

We're in Deleware :D

Delaware
Monday 15th of September 2008 1:59 pm

E.T. Absolutely terrified me. When I first saw the movie, sometime around 1987, I couldn't sleep the entire night. E.T scared me for years afterwards. Only in the last 2-3 years have I been able to even look at a picture of ET without getting scared and having to look away.

Wisconsin
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:08 pm

The movie Phantasm scared me to death when I was 10. The ending where the guy reaches out of the full length mirror did it. I didn't close my door with the mirror on it for about 3 years.

Florida
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:23 pm

The cracks between the boards on the Pier. It took me years to just look up and walk to the end.

Nebraska
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:28 pm

Clocks. We had this really loud grandfather clock in the hall right outside my bedroom and all night long I could hear the 'CCCHK CCCHK CCCCHK' of the second hand ticking and I would start to picture an army of monsters slowly marching down the sidewalk. To this day a when it gets quiet and I hear a clock ticking it gives me goosebumps.

South Dakota
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:29 pm

I can't believe nobody has brought up It's Alive! I was about 7, and I remember my Dad watched that movie with me trying to sleep on his couch. He told me to just roll over so as not to watch the movie. I think that was worse, just listening to the audio part. I just peed a little thinking about it.

Montana
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:32 pm

I watched a show about alien abductions and there was a lady who saw a bright light coming in her bedroom window and suddenly "beings" appeared in her room, paralyzed her, then began sticking needles in her eyes. Needless to say I was terrified to look at my bedroom window at night.

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:33 pm

I was a thick-skinned kid, not afraid of much. Except for rabid dogs. To this day the only Stephen King book that ever seriously creeped me out was Cujo.

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:36 pm

My parents told me the bad girl farm would come get me, I associated the farm with a garbage truck that would come around 7 am every morning. I spent a lot of my time under my bed as a child...

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:43 pm

The kids in elementary school used to freak each other out over a legend of "Bloody Mary." You had to go into the bathroom with the lights out, stand in front of the mirror, say her name 10 times with your eyes closed, then open your eyes you would see her, and probably be killed by her. Course being that bleary eyed, just seeing your own reflection would pretty much make you shit urself

Maryland
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:50 pm

Some B-grade movie where a kid has a ventriloquist's dummy that has magical powers. I have no idea whether it's all in my head, but I'd swear the dummy wore a tuxedo and looked just like George Burns.

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 2:59 pm

It would have to be "the Omen" I was at a fgiends house when I was 8 or so and saw some of it when his brother was watching. I spent the next 3 years or so thinking there was a big raven behind the door (pretty much any door, but especially the bathroom one) all ready to peck my eyes out. Just writing about it now puts a huge pit in my stomach & makes me nervous.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:03 pm

Zombies. My stupid dad played Resident Evil in front of me all the time.

Washington
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:10 pm

I'd have to say the movie "The Exorsist". I had a baby sitter that made me watch it in about 78' on HBO. I was 5 at the time. I remember not sleeping for at least a week. Otherwise the tv movie "The day after". I watched it about a month ago and it was still a little scary..

Wisconsin
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:13 pm

I have to admit Jaws wigged the crap out me too. My dad had to give me Valium to go to sleep after my 3rd night wide awake. Then when I did sleep I dreamt I lived in a world where there was water everywhere and the only way to get around was to walk across these spindly piers... yeah, that's right, so Jaws could jump right out of the water to get you...

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:20 pm

The lameness that has become this website scares me a lot. What happened to the regular "How Much Is Inside"? Haven't seen one of those in years! No pranks lately? Can I get an "Amen"?

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:21 pm

Drilling.

Alaska
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:26 pm

The 70' movie "Gargoyles". When the gargoyle peeked over the foot of the bed in the motel room, I about came unglued. Couldn't sleep with any overhang at all for weeks.

New Mexico
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:29 pm

Didn't know I was alone in the E.T. thing. Even the atari game is a bit creepy. Mostly the sticker/box art. For as much as Steven Speilberg messes around with adding walkie talkies and computer animated aliens, I would have loved to see the movie redone with a fully animated computer E.T. Somehow computer E.T. doesn't get to me the same way.

Kentucy
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:31 pm

There was a red plastic footstool in the bathroom, so I could reach the sink. I was afraid monsters would come out of it after I flushed the toilet.

Maryland
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:33 pm

When I was about 6 I saw a special on mummies on the Discovery Channel. It freaked me out so much that for weeks I had to sleep in my parents room and made someone accompany me every where I went. I even made my mom stand outside the bathroom door so she could come save me if she heard me scream. I don't know why I thought there would be a mummy in the bathroom...

New Mexico
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:42 pm

Headhunters. at 5 years old I would lie in bed with the covers pulled up to my neck so that they would think that someone had already cut it off.

Florida
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:42 pm

Less than what scares me now. Snakes, big spiders and heights then. Now I have all these stupid rational fears like serious injury, car accidents, family dying... bah

South Dakota
Monday 15th of September 2008 3:44 pm

The wheelchair that chased George C. Scott in The Changeling. Incredible use of mood, music, suspense and letting the audience scare itself silly. Guhhh.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:08 pm

The first really scary movie I saw was "Poltergeist". We rented and watched the VHS tape at home. I was probably 9 or 10, but I guess my parents decided I was old enough. I was afraid to go to sleep for weeks, and continued to have occasional nightmares for years afterward. There are scenes in that movie that still creep me out to this day.

Washington
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:11 pm

PSA Flight 182 crashed near my house in San Diego in 1978. I saw things that no kid my age should ever have to. For years I would cringe in terror whenever I heard a jet flying over my house.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:21 pm

Sirens. My mom was always telling me that if I didn't clean up my closet it would cause a house fire. It was a huge closet that had a vent from our furnace running through it. In winter it was nice and warm to lean against. I did have a lot of flammable crap in there and it's a miracle we didn't have a fire. Every time there were sirens I'd get hysterical from fear.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:33 pm

We had a fishtank in the hall between my bedroom and the bathroom, with this big, old, ugly oscar fish that never seemed to move, just breathe in and out. It would always be on the side of the tank closest to my room when I was in there and then it would move to the other side when I was in the bathroom. I was convinced it was going to jump out of the tank and eat me one day..

Minnesota
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:36 pm

Amityville Horror...I was scared to flush the toilet. I would stand as far away as my arms would allow, flush and run. Unrelated, I still have to sleep with the covers over my neck just in case a vampire visits during the night!

Ohio
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:42 pm

The trailer for the movie "Susperia"-- a girl is brushing her hair facing away from the camera and there is a creepy voice over/ sing song "roses are red...violets are blue...violets are flowers...AND THE END OF YOU!" and the girl turns around and her face is a skull.Also, a Maurice Sendak cartoon on Sesame Street-- about a little boy who is left home alone and lets in "the Nine Swines".

New Jersey
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:42 pm

When my younger sister was in elementary school, she was in some sort of little play where they kept singing the same non-sensical chorus over and over again. It was something like: "Tiki-tiki-tembo-mo-sorembo-ichi-ichi-pow-pow-pip-perry-pembo". Every time she sang it around the house, I would be very deeply disturbed by it and I had no idea why. It wasn't until I finally saw her play...

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:51 pm

Those big black guard things in the movie Dark Crystal terrified me, they looked like giant cockroaches. Ack!!

Nevada
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:52 pm

...that I realized why it bothered me. Years earlier I had seen the same story on 'Lambchop'. It was about a boy who fell down a well, but his name was so long it took forever to explain that he fell down the well. So he drowned. As a kid, his death bothered me, and apparently it stuck with me for years after.

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:52 pm

the catholic church!!! Oh my!!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 4:58 pm

I was scared of my father. I always had these weird fantasies that he would turn out to be a bank robber. Well, that turned out to be true, and now he resides in a Federal penitentiary.

Kansas
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:35 pm

I saw an SNL skit about killer Christmas trees when I was three, and it gave me nightmares. Here's a transcript of the skit: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76jtrees.phtml

Georgia
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:36 pm

Those damned flying monkeys from 'The Wizard Of Oz' scared the absolute crap out of me. I also had this thing against mirrors stemming from an episode of 'Dark Shadows' where this woman saw her reflection as a skeleton. *shudder*

Tennessee
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:38 pm

When I was 8 I was afraid of my parents mexican gardner. He use to tell me I was pretty and ask me if I had a boyfriend, and I thought maybe he was the night stalker. When the night stalker got caught, I was relieved.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:40 pm

forgetting my webmail password

Florida
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:44 pm

The big, flashing mother ship from ET scared me. I had nightmares about that thing until i was 8.

Maine
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:52 pm

Tornadoes. I remember going to a wedding on a farm once when I was about seven. The sky turned a little dark, and I ended up spening most of the time in the outhouse praying.

Kentucy
Monday 15th of September 2008 5:54 pm

when i was little i remember watching this episode of something on pbs. it was a story about a family that was preparing for a nuclear war or trying to survive after one or something. i think it was between 1980 and 1985. i cried for days afterward because it seemed so real. sometimes i get those same feelings now.

Arizona
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:14 pm

Then: Thunder and lightning, spiders, losing my hair, and Darth Vader. Now: Democrats winning office and reinstating the inheritance tax, high interest rates on business loans, low interest rates on savings accounts and investments, spiders, and Darth Vader. (I lost my hair and T/L storms are just really cool now.

Oregon
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:18 pm

The flying monkeys, that creepy Afican Warrior Fetish doll, reruns of a show called "Highway Patrol" that starred Broderick Crawford (it was always about some escaped convict and I was home by myself). Worst of all, I was 10 when Jayne Mansfield was killed and I was so afraid of being decapitated in a car wreck that I almost couldn't ride in the car. (KenTUCY? That's really scary!)

Kentucy
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:31 pm

I think every kid has a "scary part of the house" - if you are home alone you are afraid to go near it. Mine was in the basement off in a the dark alcove where the furnace and water heater were. I'd always walk by it real quickly. Also "mean" dogs.

Idaho
Monday 15th of September 2008 6:45 pm

I saw the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on television and those Oompa-Loompas screwed me up for weeks. But they were nothing compared to watching Violet getting filled up with blueberry juice after eating that gum. That scene took therapy to get past.

Ohio
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:03 pm

well, let's see. Clowns. my brothers -forced- me to watch IT and Attack of The Killer Clowns in one night. Walking sticks, preying mantises. that scene in PeeWee's big adventure where large marge's face goes all claymation (rewound constantly by my older brothers) and Jaws in the swimming pool. i was convinced he entered as soon as my brothers turned off the light (which they did often)

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:04 pm

As a kid I saw a commercial for a 70s movie called "Tarantula." The scene: a woman hanging from a chandelier in the middle of a room; the tarantulas covered the floor and were crawling up the walls and up over the ceiling towards her. I had nightmares for weeks. Spiders still scare the bejesus out of me. I see them on TV, have to do a scan of the room and lift my feet off the floor.

New Hampshire
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:17 pm

My parents scared the living bejeezus out of us by telling us about the mark of the beast. A friend of mine says her parents did the same thing to her as a kid, and made her watch the left behind series as a kid.

Arizona
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:19 pm

Michael Jackson's Thriller video. I was 3 and my cousins had taped it and used to play it to scare the crap out of me. Then when I was a bit older, the promos for the "It" mini-series.

Kentucy
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:29 pm

IT

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:30 pm

I was scared for the longest time by an episode of a Little Mermaid series on Disney. I was afraid that I would be grabbed by evil sea monsters through the drain whenever I was in the bath and put in a underwater jail with alligators. I was more scared by the alligators than drowning, really.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:40 pm

Inexplicably, handicapped people. This has died down a lot but I'm still a bit unsettled by people with those silly artificial limbs that sit smack in the uncanny valley.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:45 pm

"jodie" the demon from the movie "The Amityville Horror" pretty much did me in for YEARS. I would not look out the window at night for fear there would be two little red eyes staring at me.

Alabama
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:46 pm

The rapture - came home from elementary school, house was wide open, no Mom. Freaked the hell out. She was across the street at the neighbors, naturally. Thanks, Jesus!

Colorado
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:52 pm

john McCain and Sarah palin...... I get goosebumps just thinkin about it

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 7:58 pm

The final scene of carrie (original), a scene from Pet Cemetary of a child on a bed whispering to her sister, the twins in the shining.

Michigan
Monday 15th of September 2008 8:38 pm

Airplane crashes.

Massachusetts
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:08 pm

Anyone in a Santa Claus suit. I was afraid my parents would make me sit on their lap so they could get a damn picture of me crying.

Ohio
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:14 pm

Swamps. Then I started having a dream over and over and still do, dead trees sticking out, no leaves, no land in sight, not knowing how deep it is. We would always end up there because our car could not make it up a super steep hill and we'd slide down to the swamp.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:16 pm

Someone thought it would be a good idea to give my brother and me a totally creepy painting of a clown to decorate our room. So my mom hung it up, and for like two weeks I had nightmares that the clown was climbing out of the picture and chasing me. It promptly went into the back of the closet, facing the wall.

Florida
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:27 pm

Democrats. I shiver in terror to this day.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:39 pm

The darkness used to scare me most days because I was always afraid of who might be there. Kidnappers, ninjas, anyone. Nocturnal paranoia is fun. It's still there, too (17 now, so that's not that long), but not as bad. Also, most ghost movies had me on end for days. There was some Stephen King tv series a few years ago, 2000-ish, called Red Rose. I think that was the worst.

Illinois
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:41 pm

Learned about the holocaust when i was too young, and was scared to death to take a shower b/c i thought it might be a death trap; also a babysitter watched "firestarter" when i was like 4 and I was terrified of fires for most of my childhood

West Virginia
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:43 pm

Band-aids. Still don't like 'em.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 9:58 pm

I used to have nightmares about hovering spy cameras, which have now been invented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_Cypher

Indiana
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:18 pm

Cookie monster.

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:36 pm

Balloons!! They are loud, they are too unnaturally shiny and round, and the anticipation of waiting for those things to pop, and they always would, drove me absolutely bonkers with fear!

Georgia
Monday 15th of September 2008 10:37 pm

Have you noticed how many of these answers are about movies? I guess it is true that little kids shouldn't see R-rated movies. :-) My kid brother loved the movie E.T. but was terrified of the scene where E.T. runs through the forest screaming. My brother would hide behind the couch when that scene came on, or make us fast-forward past "the scary part." Took him years to get over that.

Hawaii
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:20 pm

West Virginia... it still scares me everytime I am there

West Virginia
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:21 pm

WHEN I WAS A KID LIVING AT MY PARENT'S HOUSE, MY DAD KEPT A COLLECTION OF T.V. GUIDES IN THE BATHROOM. I WAS TOTALLY AFRAID OF THE PEOPLE'S PICTURES ON FRONT OF THE T.V. GUIDE. I THOUGHT THAT THEY COULD SEE ME SITTING ON THE TOILET AND WERE GOING TO START TO TALK TO ME. YEP, I THOUGHT THEY WATCHED ME SHOWER TOO. SPOOKY!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:24 pm

WHEN I WAS A KID LIVING AT MY PARENT'S HOUSE, MY DAD KEPT A COLLECTION OF T.V. GUIDES IN THE BATHROOM. I WAS TOTALLY AFRAID OF THE PEOPLE'S PICTURES ON FRONT OF THE T.V. GUIDE. I THOUGHT THAT THEY COULD SEE ME SITTING ON THE TOILET AND WERE GOING TO START TO TALK TO ME. YEP, I THOUGHT THEY WATCHED ME SHOWER TOO. SPOOKY!

California
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:25 pm

For years as a kid I was convinced that hanging my leg between the wall and the mattress would get it pinched off by the crab-like claw of some unknown creature. This same creature could also be found waiting to grab my ankles from under the basement stairs as I decended.

New York
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:27 pm

When I was a kid at the height of the cold war, I was afraid of nuclear war and nuclear winter.

Pennsylvania
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:35 pm

Props to "The Day After" and "Fantasy Island". Anyone remember some 80's crime prevention show with choices? 'Hear a bump in the night. Should you: A. Go check it out B. Stay where you are and call 911 or C. Sneak out the window and call 911 from a friend's place?' Then it would show A and B getting confronted by the (armed) intruder. Bad choice! Very nightmare worthy!

Tennessee
Monday 15th of September 2008 11:58 pm

When I was little I had a music thing with grover's face that stuck to the side of my crib (it was convertible, so my mom took one of the sides off and I slept in it until I was at least 5). One night I dreamt it came to life and tried to eat me - I couldn't stand to look at Grover for a long time

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:18 am

The only thing I fear is fear itself.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:18 am

santa claus and large marge.

Washington
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:20 am

Thunderstorms

Wisconsin
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:32 am

The Abominable Snowman in the Matterhorn at Disneyland...I remember not riding it because of that.

Colorado
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:47 am

My crazy uncle let me watch whatever movies I wanted when I would stay at his house. I watched Pet Semetary once and the scene when the kid cuts the guys achillies(sp?) tendon from under the bed scared me so bad. I didn't mess with anything within about a 2-foot radius around my bed for years after.

Florida
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 2:33 am

Other peoples dads. I was so scared that when I slept over at someones house, that there dad would turn out to be a killer or rapist.

Nevada
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 2:45 am

Gremlins. I actually made my parents put a lock on the outside of my closet door so they wouldn't come out and get me while I was asleep.

Oklahoma
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:16 am

I was also afraid there were giant octopi under my bed.

Oklahoma
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:18 am

My uncle showed me Monty Python and the Holy Grail when i was like 4. I was terrified of rabbits for a good couple years because of it.

Pennsylvania
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:28 am

Barack Obama

Virginia
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:46 am

Your story about cash4gold being a ripoff scared me. I mean seriously, those things spam on cable, offer NO details, and want you to mail them gold. "How can it NOT be legit??" For your next daring expose, I suggest: "New! Water is wet!" Wherein you explore the fact that water is in fact wet, and noone has actually briefed you on this recently.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:48 am

Retarded people, or people with Downs Syndrome. They look & act like they've been mutated by some horrible disease or nuclear radiation. I would stay as far away from them as I could & if they did come near I'd hold my breath because obviously they were poisonous. They still freak me out a little to this day but at least I don't overreact as much.

Wisconsin
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:22 am

Bridges. As a child, and still sometimes now (though rarely) I have had nightmares of travelling across high bridges. I still get tense when I have to drive across a banked freeway bridge or overpass. Also, I was scared of my large teddy bear at night, even though I loved him during the day. I had to make sure he wasn't facing me when it was time for lights out.

Missouri
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:06 am

Oh, and one that has gotten worse over time, rather than better - I'm terrified of the democratic process. Face it - you people are a bunch of loons, and you're deciding my future. I've always hated group assignments.

Missouri
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:07 am

The Crest Cavity Monsters. I was afraid that if I didn't brush my teeth, they would come out of my closet at night and make cavities in my teeth with their jack hammers. I guess it worked because I'm 33 and have never had a cavity.

Massachusetts
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:08 am

The movie "Day of the Triffids", from back in the late 60's. The entire world went blind from looking at a meteor shower, and plants became deadly.

Alabama
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:57 am

As a child and leading into adulthood, I was absolutely TERRIFIED of going into my parents' basement, even with the lights on. Of course, my father wasn't having this for even a second, and forced me. I still get chills when I visit and see that door in the kitchen.

Wisconsin
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:16 am

Bunsen and Beaker from "The Muppet Show" used to give me the heebie-geebies! I can still remember having a "bad feeling" about those two..

Georgia
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:19 am

Return To Oz. The Electric Shock Therapy machine at the beginning, the Wheelers, and the princess with the collection of heads... all deliciously scary and nightmare-worthy. Though the lunchpail tree continues to intrigue.

Pennsylvania
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:21 am

That exact same scene from "Carrie," the exact same way. Rob, you and I are about the same age, so we may have seen it on TV the exact same night! (sings in Sting voice:) Synchronicity.

New Hampshire
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:24 am

The movie "IT". When I seen that movie when I was a kid it made me petrified of clowns. And to this very day, I hate clowns and when I'm close to one I just want to beat the shit out of it then run away.

Oklahoma
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:16 am

I have always been terrified of crabs or pretty much anything with pinchers, but mainly crabs. It was because of my mother's boyfriend who thought it would be funny to put a dead crab under my blankets when I was like 7. Ever since then I can touch crabs. Chucky also scares the hell out of me. I saw it when I was 5 and I can never have any dolls in my room when I am sleeping.

Connecticut
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:20 am

Naturally the clown from Poltergeist. And going to bed without any covers. It could be 100 degrees and I had to have at least a sheet on me. But my brother gets the award for being frightened by the dumbest thing... the lady at the beginning of the Electric Company's opening song. "Hey you guuuuuys!". I used to not warn him it was coming and laugh when he ran to mom.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:38 am

I saw Stephen King's IT when I was about 11, and the scene where Pennywise pushes aside the tiles on the shower floor and comes up through the drain freaked me the hell out. After that, I didn't set foot in a shower for at least a couple months. I went back to taking baths.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 12:03 pm

In a horrible old Japanese movie ("War of the Gargantuans"?), the "bad" gargantuan picks a woman up and eats her, then spits out her clothes. For some reason, eating a human wasn't a bad thing to me (hey -- I had a weird childhood) but seeing the clothes spat out set me weeping with sadness for her, and left me with years of nightmares.

Oregon
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 12:11 pm

My uncle used to terrorize me with the idea of blood squirting eyeballs. So there's that. To this day people with the ability to do weird things with their eyes (flip their eyelids up, etc.) creep me out.

Utah
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 12:13 pm

I always had nightmares of being caught in gang crossfire after watching the 80's movies about gang violence in LA. I was also freaked out one day when I saw two drunk adults fighting and one choked the other unconscious, as a kid I thought I had witnessed a murder.

Arizona
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 12:34 pm

I still sleep with the covers up to my chin because of the vampires (if they can't see your neck, they can't get you!)

Nebraska
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:10 pm

"Ah yes, the "outer limits episode where some lady was being chased around her house and terrorized by an Afican Warrior Fetish doll". If the chain was removed from its neck, it would come alive." That scared the crap out of me too, where she was holding the door shut and it was stabing some kind of knife under the door. *shudder* I had nightmares about that for years.

Missouri
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:13 pm

I took the Snow White ride at Disney World when I was about six or seven. It started off looking very benign; cutesy music, and a charming mining cart theme with the Seven Dwarves' names written on the carts. It started nicely, but quickly became the stuff of nightmares; dark light, scary music, and, the coup de grace, the witch popping out of the wall with an apple and a cackle. Scary!

Arizona
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 1:26 pm

2 things... I used to never be able to use a porta potty or an escalator because of the X-Files. There was one episode where a monster hid in the porta potties and ATE PEOPLE!! Geezus!! The other one was some dude that lived in the escalator and ended up being sucked in and squished. I'm still nervous on escalators!! Oh and that movie arachnaphobia from the early 90s still scares me!

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 2:27 pm

The after midnight gremlins, for sure. For years, I was convinced that I saw their shadows next to my bed. Movie still creeps me out.

Texas
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 2:34 pm

I was terrified of my grandma's kitchen when I was little. I refused to go in because I was convinced she would push me into her oven and roast me a la Hansel and Gretel.

Colorado
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 2:51 pm

Michael Jackson's Thriller video. The part where his face changes in to a wolf-face. Oh god, I didn't sleep for weeks. I think I was 4 or 5.

Minnesota
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:06 pm

My bed's headboard had a naturally occurring knot in it. It was, and I have confirmed this with a visit to my Mom's house, the most clear and obvious vision of Satan you have ever seen. Beard, horns and all. Everytime I would open my eyes and look up, Satan was staring at me. Damn you, Ethan Allen!

Vermont
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:18 pm

A painfully obvious one...cemetaries. One time my family drove past the local cemetary and there was this strange glow moving around. Then when I was 8 we moved to a house that was across the street from the cemetary. I thought my bathtub was a grave stone. I also spazzed out when I found myself singing the line "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me." The dead people were after me.

Oklahoma
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:22 pm

The predictions of Nostradamus and bikers. At thirty-six, 24 years after Halley's Comet was supposed to turn the human race into cannibalistic mole people, I'm totally over my fear of Nostradamus.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:30 pm

The Crawling Hand. Its about a hand that crawls around and then jumps up and chokes people. Very lame now but scary as a little kid.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:58 pm

When I was a kid in the 1950s I saw the movie “Them.” It was one of the first that used radiation from Nevada desert A-bomb testing as the rationale for insects growing into giants. In “Them” it was giant ants that killed people and dropped their bones outside the huge anthills in the desert. What scared me after seeing the movie was the sound these ants made – like many loud crickets. That in itself wasn’t scary but it was summertime and I slept with the window open next to my bed with a wooded area nearby. The nighttime cricket sounds kept waking me up in terror because of that movie. A subconscious connection like that is very hard to overcome when you’re a kid!

Illinois
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 3:59 pm

I too was scared of E.T. The thought of him would keep me awake at night. That was until my mom told me that he was just like Gumby.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 4:23 pm

I grew up in an old white Victorian. My brother thought it was a grand idea for me to watch The Shining as my first horror flick. Still can't go into the basement and I'm over 30.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 4:27 pm

CORN RUST

Indiana
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:04 pm

I used to be afraid that this Muslim would come to Chicago and get involved with extremists who bomb people and commit voter fraud and then he would somehow, after doing absolutely nothing of note, become the Democrat candidate for President of the US. But hey, that would never happen, right? Right?

Illinois
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:52 pm

I used to be afraid that Hillary Clinton would somehow pretend to have anything to do with me and somehow become a senator from me and use that to catapult herself into a spectacularly failing presidential campaign.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:53 pm

Everything.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 5:58 pm

I used to be afraid of the wolf at the end of The Neverending Story. I used to think that thing lived under my basement stairs, and was going to come out and eat me =(

New Jersey
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 6:02 pm

I had the same problem as you, only the cause was an episode of Dark Shadows where Jeremiah's hand thrusts up through his grave. (I wasn't an easily scared child. In my defense, there had been two deaths in our family in quick succession.) I didn't go near anything I couldn't see under. My family thought I was crazy. They still do, only not because of that.

Arizona
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 6:04 pm

When I was six or seven, I was terrified of Bigfoot. We used to go camping in an area near the High Uintas Wilderness area, and my older friends would talk about Bigfoot being in the woods nearby. When we got home, I noticed that there was a window by the head of my bed. I always used to think that Bigfoot was outside looking at me as I slept.

Utah
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:09 pm

I used to be terrified of the child-catcher in Mary Poppins. It got worse when I heard the scrap metal man blowing his trumpet - my parents told me that it was the child catcher. Every time I heard the scrap metal man's trumpet I used to hide. Even today I feel a chill of fear every time I hear the SMM's trumpet.

Hawaii
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:39 pm

There are only two things in this world that scare me, and one of them is nuclear warfare!

Florida
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 7:47 pm

I saw Ghostbusters when I was very small (5 or 6) and was terrified of the stop-motion black demon dogs. This fear lasted until I was 18 when I *finally* watched the movie again.

South Carolina
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:01 pm

The song "Puttin' on the Ritz" (any version). I still cringe whenever I hear it.

Indiana
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:09 pm

the movie "elephant" (2005?) scared the crap out of me....its about the columbine shootings. it haunted me for days

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:14 pm

When I was younger, right after Rugrats and Doug, the show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" would come on Nickelodeon. It was rated TVY7 and I was never allowed to watch it until I turned seven. When I finally turned the magic age, I could never make through the opening titles. The image of a swing slowly swinging in the wind on a foggy night scared me to death.

Illinois
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:34 pm

The Unsolved Mysteries theme music!

Michigan
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:49 pm

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland terrified me when I was small. It took me years to watch it all the way through, which always made it worse because I'd quit when it was the scariest and never when things were all happy again. Still gives me nightmares.

Texas
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 8:51 pm

the red bull from the movie the last unicorn. Still creeps me out to think about it.

North Dakota
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:31 pm

The opening to Tales from the Darkside- none of the actual programs bothered me, but that music and the use of images that could have been taken down the street they looked so much like where I grew up really got to me.

Ohio
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 9:41 pm

We had a house in upstate NY and it was so quiet up there at night and so dark that I was convinced someone was going to kill me while I slept. As a kid from the city, the silence completely freaked me out.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:10 pm

Ditto to Return to Oz. Scariest movie a kid with overprotective parents can watch! Also, the bloody, decaying legs of the grandma who jumped in the acid pond in Dante's Peak.

Pennsylvania
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:23 pm

Nick News made me fear that any creak or bump in the night meant that our house was either burning down or being broken into... Linda Ellerbee cost me many hours of childhood sleep.

New York
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:24 pm

I was terrified of walking barefoot on grass and I didn't get over it until I was almost 19.

Wisconsin
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:37 pm

The Sci-Fi Original Movie called The Core. It was about the earth's core stopping. /I was seriously afraid the earth's core would stop./

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 10:59 pm

My grandma had this plush doll she kept on top of the hutch. If you flipped it one way, it was little red riding hood. But if you flipped it the other way, it was a terrifying-looking Big Bad Wolf in Grandma's clothes. The wolf -- white jagged teeth and angry shining eyes -- scared the hell out of me every time the laughing grown ups flipped it over. My family is sick.

Ohio
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:48 pm

Hurricane Hugo. My parents and I remember well the many nights I would sneak into their bedroom with my blanket and pillow, turn the Weather Channel on, and camp out on the floor. I was both terrified and obsessed. I must not have understood that, from Ohio, the hurricane was no real threat to us. My dad says I woke him up once at 3am to ask how far away 500 miles was.

Ohio
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:51 pm

I don't remember the name of the movie but it was a British post apocalyptic film ala THE DAY AFTER but 10 times creepier. Had nightmares about it for weeks.

California
Tuesday 16th of September 2008 11:52 pm

Swimming pools. Our community pool had a cartoonish mural of sea creatures painted on the side wall. I remember one of the animals was a lobster. I thought the pictures represented animals that might live in the pool, perhaps in the deep end, which I had been warned about. I failed "grade one" of swimming lessons three times because the final test required us to jump into the pool

Michigan
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:11 am

I had a recurring dream where my family were in our old car driving through far north Queensland (Australia, where I grew up). We'd go through a creek then suddenly cannibals would rush out of the grass on either side, rip my dad in half and drag him off. Just recently I found a photo in a calendar of a place called Cannibal Creek that we must have driven through while moving towns once.

Texas
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:25 am

Shark Week. I still don't like to swim.

Tennessee
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:44 am

The opening credits of "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I could watch the movie ok, but every time that opening song about Halloween Town would play, I would always run and hide until it was over.

Colorado
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:49 am

There was a Sesame Street segment that always freaked out me and my sister when we were little... I still find it kind of creepy, whenever the tune pops into my head. It had this sort of circus-y music set to scenes of toys moving and walking around. At the climax of the music it showed a satellite floating in space or something, and that totally made me lose it. I don`t know why!

Alaska
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 1:12 am

Carnies....Circus folk. They have very small hands.

Florida
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 3:59 am

I was, for some reason, afraid of the opening theme to the kid's TV show "You Can't Do That On Television". They were building people on a conveyor belt or something. I loved the show after I stopped being terrified of the theme, though.

Connecticut
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 4:03 am

The dark. Also the quiet woods...especially in the dark. The scariest movie I ever watched was Blair Witch Project. The setting...in those woods scared the crap outta me. The setting was similar to the woods I grew up near and around in PA so it was eerily familiar. I walked from room to room for weeks turning one light on and the other off so that I wouldn't be in the dark.

Pennsylvania
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 7:00 am

Large Marge, man, Large Marge! O_O

New York
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:14 am

On day while out playing in our manor, I fell into a cave with hundreds of bats. I was stuck in this cave for a very long time, until our butler finally got some help, and these bats were just swarming everywhere. Oh, and also when I saw my parents gunned down outside of a theater also scared me.

New York
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:46 am

Being buried alive in my sleep scared me the most. I thought that while I slept, my body would be paralyzed into whatever position I was sleeping in and then zombies would come and carry me off to be put into a coffin and buried alive. So, I decided I would sleep in positions that wouldn't allow me to be easily placed inside of a coffin. I still sprawl all over the bed to this day.

Ohio
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 9:01 am

I used to hate pictures of bugs in books. I couldn't touch the page, ESPECIALLY if I had turned the page--never know what those bugs'll get up to if you can't see them.

California
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 9:03 am

I have to agree with other posters - Stephen King's IT... I watched this in the house on my own and was scared stiff. I still can't walk over a drain in the street (especially at night) 'Do they float?'...

Minnesota
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 9:45 am

The thing in the box that ate people in the movie Creepshow. It's cheesy to see now, but when I was a kid, I couldn't have any sort of box in my room for a very long time.

Arizona
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 9:55 am

Sock monkeys. They've always terrified me, and still do today... and I'm 37!

Texas
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 11:37 am

I'll go with Nuclear War. I was a child of the Eighties--the last Cold War generation. We didn't have visions of "Duck'n'Cover." Only destruction. My folks didn't let me watch "The Day After." That only made me more interested in reading about nuclear war, and its effects. I now find it amusing that you can see "The Day After," with its now cheesy effects, on SciFi.

Louisiana
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 11:41 am

My dad died of a heart attack when I was 11. I don't think my mom ever got a nap for about a year after. Every time she would doze off in a chair or fall asleep on the couch, I'd have to wake her up for fear she had died, too.

Kansas
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:14 pm

The movie Tremors. Scared the crap out of me. And I didn't even watch the whole thing.

North Carolina
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 12:26 pm

Jaws. I begged my parents to take me. I was 7 years old. Big mistake. I don't think I ever took another bubble bath again. If I couldn't see the bottom of the water, I wasn't going near it.

Massachusetts
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 1:09 pm

Lightning, yo. Lightning. And that movie "the gate". I used to be afraid a gate would open up behind my bed.

New York
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 1:39 pm

In my family there is a summertime tradition, and it is this; whenever there is both a baby and a lobster in the same household, the baby and the lobster are put on the floor to "play" together. According to my mother, I got pinched on the leg, and have been wicked scared of lobsters ever since. I can't even eat it unless someone else takes it apart.

Massachusetts
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 1:56 pm

Alf, that television martian. Oh, also, the crypt keeper... aaand the X-Files intro song.

New Mexico
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 2:11 pm

No lie, the TUMS jingle.

Maryland
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 2:33 pm

Kingdom of the spiders: www.imdb.com/title/tt0076271/

Alaska
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 4:16 pm

I remember watching some cheesy vampire TV show when I was a kid. I had the sense that the vampires were hanging out under my bed, but only when the lights were off. So, at night I would turn the light switch off by the door, and then take a running leap to my bed so that they couldn't grab my feet. Does anyone know any cheesy vampire shows from the 90's?

Maine
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 5:17 pm

Zombie-fied Richard Moll lurked around every corner for years after a friend's mom made the poor judgment call of 'House' being a good slumber party movie for eight-year-olds.

Maryland
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 5:49 pm

1) The floating vampire kid outside the window in Salem's Lot. 2) The episode of Bionic Woman with Bigfoot in it

New York
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:29 pm

Remember in Ghost Busters 2 when the pink goo comes out of the bathtub? Our bathtub had some pretty bad rust stains (yay well water) and I refused to bathe in that tub until I was 15 at least. I always used my parent's shower.

Florida
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:38 pm

The Day After!! I'm so happy to read that there are others who were terrified as well. Nuclear war at its best. Also, after I saw the Amityville Horror, I touched a wall in my house (which either had something spilled on it, or my mom had just cleaned it) felt that it was wet, and almost fainted in terror that slime or blood was leaking out of our walls.

Connecticut
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:42 pm

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.

Missouri
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 8:55 pm

Jurassic Park came out when I was 6 or 7 and for a few years I was terrified that I would be eaten by velociraptors. Then I found out that they were only a couple feet tall so I wasn't scared anymore, nevermind the fact that they're extinct.

Louisiana
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 10:22 pm

I saw part of temple of doom when I wqas like seven that terrified me and the scene in sleepy hollow with the iron maiden gave me nightmares for weeks and still makes me tense up to think about it.

Minnesota
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 10:39 pm

An Unsolved Mysteries episode about alien abduction. I walked everywhere with a flashlight for a week after watching it.

Texas
Wednesday 17th of September 2008 11:31 pm

Holy shit, Margaret Thatcher's still alive? Forget "when you were a kid," that scares me now!

Washington
Thursday 18th of September 2008 1:28 am

No question, it was the episode of 'Are you afraid of the dark' called "Tale of the dead mans float". Been weary of pools ever since.

Texas
Thursday 18th of September 2008 1:39 am

The end music of Star Trek, with the giant alien face outside the ship, that scared the bejesus out of me as a kid.

Hawaii
Thursday 18th of September 2008 2:31 am

The Exorcist terrifies me. Maybe because the premise could be or was real, and its dealing with some really serious issues, but I still to this day cannot watch it all the way through. Im 33 and I first saw it when I was 4 or 5/

Wisconsin
Thursday 18th of September 2008 5:24 am

When I was 13 or 14, vagina scared me.

Montana
Thursday 18th of September 2008 5:25 am

The film Dante's Peak, the volcano one. scared the crap out of me, i thought i would wake up and the house would have been burned down by lava! lava is very scary when you 11!

Texas
Thursday 18th of September 2008 6:11 am

The show Unsolved Mysteries and the theme song to it. Of course Chucky scared me too. I ended up "killing" my dolls that could talk including my Teddy Ruxspin.

Tennessee
Thursday 18th of September 2008 7:12 am

Fire.... I couldn't get to sleep without opening my eyes every couple of minutes to make sure my room wasn't ablaze.

Georgia
Thursday 18th of September 2008 7:54 am

I saw the Elephant Man when I was too young, and I was afraid to look in the mirror for (what seems in my memory like) years, because I thought if I did I would be the Elephant Man. I was also afraid of the theme to the Dark Side (when the video goes into negative), and an episode of ripley's believe it or not where people were jumping frm a burning building.

New Jersey
Thursday 18th of September 2008 7:57 am

The Sleestacks on "Land of the Lost" with their soul-less staring eyes. I visited the Olympic penninsula in NW Washington twenty years ago, and viewed some 'Sea Stacks' - land formations off the beach - and that name was close enough so that if I think of the Washington coastline, images of a miniature raft going straight down a miniature waterfall with the theme song enter my mind.

Utah
Thursday 18th of September 2008 8:14 am

Last nightmare scene in "Deliverance" (hand out of lake)... Ugh...

Maryland
Thursday 18th of September 2008 8:48 am

I saw "Village of the Damned" when I was really young and the part where Kirstie Alley character's skin is found on the pavement creeped me out for years.

Kentucy
Thursday 18th of September 2008 10:15 am

Bees

New York
Thursday 18th of September 2008 10:30 am

I was terrified of the " Man with the silver nose " from the movie "Cat Ballou". It was a comedy, but I swear, I saw that creepy guy and his silver nose behind every nook & crannie. Oh yeah, like my compatriot form Missouri, I am also terrified of Lindsey Lohan.

Missouri
Thursday 18th of September 2008 11:20 am

Werewolf in London freaked me out badly.

Michigan
Thursday 18th of September 2008 12:06 pm

+1 on the opening sequence to Tales from the Darkside, brilliant & dark. plus they played the show during the weekend during the day when i was a kid, and to be creeped out during the day- well, that's something special.

California
Thursday 18th of September 2008 12:50 pm

My uncle told me a story about a girl that always had to pee in the middle of the night, just like I do, but her bathroom was haunted. I convinced myself that the ghost would not know I was in there till I flushed. I would wash